Thursday, May 1, 2008.

Just Tuesday, WAC commissioner Karl Benson was on Idaho SportsTalk saying he expected the conference to have a fourth bowl tie-in with the advent of the Rocky Mountain Bowl. Well, it's a no-go. The new event proposed for Salt Lake City, which would have matched the WAC and the Mountain West, was one of 35 bowls up for certification with the NCAA yesterday, and 34 made it. Two new games were approved: the Congressional Bowl in Washington D.C. and the St. Petersburg Bowl. The Rocky Mountain Bowl wasn't even David Vobora--and the people behind it certainly aren't having as much fun as Vobora's going to have in June as "Mr. Irrelevant". But they'll try again next year.

That leaves the WAC with the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl, the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl. The past two years things have worked out well for the conference, as trips to the BCS promised land by Boise State and Hawaii have opened the door for a fourth WAC bowl participant. But even with a staggering 68 teams making bowl games this year, there's no guarantee the system will go four-deep into the WAC. It's unclear exactly why the Rocky Mountain Bowl wasn't approved, other than the committee just felt 34 was enough to accommodate the number of expected bowl-eligible teams and shut the door.

Boise State offensive guard Andrew Woodruff didn't come out early this year, but he got drafted anyway. It was yesterday--in the Canadian Football League. The CFL allows its teams to draft Canadian players four years after they finish high school, so with his redshirt year, Woodruff qualified. And the Victoria product was taken by the Montreal Alouettes in the second round. It's kind of blind faith for the Alouettes--because Woodruff is under the umbrella of NCAA rules, he can't talk to or be worked out by any CFL teams. They're just going on the tape they've seen, and there's little doubt Woodruff could be productive for a long time north of the border. He'll certainly check out his NFL possibilities first after the 2008 season ends.

Offensive guard Jon Gott, who hails from Lethbridge, Alberta, hasn't even started a game at BSU yet, but he was drafted in the fifth round by the Calgary Stampeders. Gott is penciled in as a Bronco first-teamer this season. As a bruising 6-2, 254-pound H-back, Rolly Lumbala's prospects are excellent in Canada. The Calgary native just finished his career at Idaho and was snagged as the No. 9 overall pick in the CFL Draft by the B.C. Lions. Lumbala will first test the waters in the NFL as a free agent with Miami, though.

The Idaho Steelheads will get back into intersectional hockey next season after playing only Western ECHL teams in the campaign just concluded. The inter-conference games are always interesting, and the Steelheads have four on the road right off the bat in late October and early November--at Elmira (twice), Reading and Trenton. Then Reading comes to Boise for a pair in January. The only other fresh foe is the Ontario Reign (from California, not Oregon). The Steelies will see the new Pacific Division member six times next season, three home and three away.

Here we are on the first of May, and there's no other talk of hockey in Boise. Unless you're acquainted with Scott Burt. The popular former Idaho Steelhead is still grinding it out with the Utah Grizzlies in the Kelly Cup Playoffs, with the National Conference semifinals moving to the greater Salt Lake area tonight. ECHL West Division champion Victoria is heavily-favored against the Cinderella Griz, but Utah stunned the Salmon Kings in Game 1 in B.C., 6-0. Victoria returned the favor last Sunday with a 6-1 victory to knot the series at a game apiece. Burt, an alternate captain for Utah, has played six playoff games and has one assist. On the other side, the Alaska Aces, the team that swept the Steelheads in the first round, are about to be swept themselves by Las Vegas.

This guy is rarely our former Boise Hawk of the Day because, well, he played just one game for Boise after being called up from the Cubs' rookie team in Mesa in 2002 (going 2-for-5). But holy moly, what a game Geovany Soto had last night for the Cubbies. Now Chicago's regular catcher, Soto went 2-for-4, and both hits were three-run homers. That gave the 25-year-old Puerto Rican six RBIs to up his season total to 20--Soto's now batting .333. One of his teammates for that one game in Boise, Ronny Cedeno, had a bases-loaded double in the eighth last night to finish off the 19-5 rout of Milwaukee.

In other baseball news, Glenns Ferry's Zach Simons was traded from the Colorado Rockies organization to Detroit yesterday. Simons was a second round pick of the Rockies in 2005 and had worked his way up to the Class A California League, where he was 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA in seven appearances for the Modesto Nuts.

It was no contest at the WAC Golf Championships in San Jose. Boise State's Troy Merritt won his fifth straight tournament and seventh of the season yesterday by winning the WAC individual title in San Jose--by a fat 10 strokes. Merritt shot a 1-under-71 yesterday and was the only player to finish under par for the tourney at seven-under. BSU as a team ended in second, just five strokes behind champion New Mexico State. Next stop for Merritt is NCAA Regionals--things start to get very interesting now for the WAC Player of the Year.

This Day In Sports...May 1, 1991:

Oakland's Rickey Henderson breaks Lou Brock's career record for stolen bases, swiping his 939th in a game against the Yankees. Henderson wasn't quite halfway through a 25-year big league career spread among nine different teams. He ended up with 1,406 stolen bases. Henderson, incidentally, started his pro career as a 17-year-old with the Boise A's in 1976.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB's Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 1350 KTIK/The Ticket. He also handles color commentary on KTVB's telecasts of Boise State football.)

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